1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus capable of recording data to be spread continuously over a plurality recording mediums even if any one of the recording mediums is replaced by another during a recording operation and a recording method adopted in the recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a system capable of recording and playing back audio data of typically a program has been becoming popular. Examples of such a system are a DAT (Digital Audio Tape) system and an MD (Mini Disc: a trademark) in addition to a tape cassette recorder.
A recording medium used in such a recording/playback system is the so-called removable media which can be replaced by another. Thus, in an operation to record a broadcast program called an air check with a length exceeding a recording area of the recording medium, the user can replace the recording medium with another. To put it in detail, when the recording area of a recording medium currently mounted on the recording/playback apparatus is all used up, the user can suspend the recording operation, eject the recording medium from the apparatus, newly mount a next recording medium and resume the recording operation.
While a recording medium is being replaced with another, however, no data can be recorded on a recording medium so that information supposed to be recorded during a period of time a recording medium is being replaced with another is lost. As a result, information actually recorded on the recording mediums is not continuous. In addition, in an operation to play back data from a plurality of recording mediums into which the data has been recorded in a way described above, information lost during a replacement of a recording medium with another in the recording operation can not of course be played back.
From the user's point of view, it is desirable to prevent continuity of recorded information from being lost as much as possible.
For example, there are some tape cassette recorders and MD systems which are designed into the so-called double-deck system, that is, a recording/playback apparatus having two mechanical-deck units. In the case of such a double-deck recording/playback apparatus, the user is capable of carrying out a recording operation wherein the apparatus is switched to a recording medium mounted on the second mechanical-deck unit at the end of a recording medium mounted on the first mechanical-deck unit. In such a case, however, information is normally lost during a period of time to switch the recording operation from one of the mechanical-deck units to the other.
As a conceivable technique adopted in such a double-deck recording/playback apparatus to prevent recorded information from being lost even in a situation described above, there is an operation to automatically start a recording operation on a recording medium mounted on the second mechanical-deck unit at the end of a recording medium mounted on the first mechanical-deck unit, beginning at a position in the recorded data at which the recording operation on the first mechanical-deck unit reaches the end of the recording medium mounted thereon. By adopting this technique, the end of data recorded on the recording medium mounted on the first mechanical-deck unit is continued by the beginning of data recorded on the recording medium mounted on the second mechanical-deck unit. As a result, recorded information with no lost part can be obtained.
Nevertheless, we know that it is extremely difficult to control particularly synchronization of data processing timing with switching of transfer of recorded data from a mechanical-deck unit to another in order to make recorded data spread over a plurality of recording mediums continuous in a strict sense. This is because a location in a data sequence at which a recording operation is switched from a mechanical-deck unit to another is unknown. In addition, in order to play back recorded audio data spread over a plurality of recording mediums continuously without for example a data intermission, it is necessary to provide a somewhat complicated playback-signal processing function to join the last data played back from an immediately preceding disc to the first data played back from the following disc to form a sequence.